Degree Progress
Information Overload for Advisers
Frank Blalark, Director, Registrar's office
Sue Van Voorhis, Director, Academic Support Resources
Background
Started with strategic planning 2007
Goal
Become one of the Top Three Public Research University in the World
Four ways - Exceptional students, faculty and staff, organization, innovation
Comparison group - The Ohio State, Penn State, UC - Berkeley, UC - Los
Angeles, U of Florida, University of Illinois, U of Michigan, U of TexasAustin, U of Washington-Seattle, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Regents Goal
Undergraduate students:
60% Undergraduates graduate in 4 years
70% Undergraduates graduate in 5 years
80% Undergraduates graduate in 6 years
Graduate students:
Increase graduate graduation rates.
by spring 2012 - F08 NHS cohort
Rates graph
What needed to occur?
Transformation:
Transforming the Undergraduate Experience:
Strategic Positioning Initiatives
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Create Honors college
Increase writing curriculum
Enhance Student Support Services
Focus on outcomes:
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Learning outcomes
o Created and implementation in progress
Personal developmental outcomes
o Responsibility, accountability, independence, goal
oriented, self-confident, resilient
Council on Liberal Education
o Implemented
Guiding principles
• Focus is on students and their success
• An array of resources and learning opportunities that enable
students to exercise responsibility for their learning and success
• The critical value and importance of diversity in guiding policies and
strategies that promote student success at the University
• An undergraduate experience that is second to none and based on
research and scholarship
Increase in:
• Number of applicants
• Size of the freshman class
• Quality of the freshman class
• Percent of entering students who are students of color
• Percent of freshmen in the top 10% of their high school
class
• Percent of freshmen living on campus
• Percent satisfied or very satisfied with their university
experience
Impact of change:
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University Honors - draw more top-ranked
Minnesota students
Cooperative admissions with professional
schools - retention of students
Welcome Week - more engaged
Financial aid programs - afordability
Increase research opportunities - retention
Additional positive factors:
Smart Learning Commons
Study Abroad
Student Study Space
CAPE (Center for Academic Planning & Exploration)
Residential Learning Communities
President's Emerging Scholars
Pathways to increasing rates:
Students will be better supported to meet
their educational goals and graduate in a
timely way, through:
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Improved advising services
Better coordinated career services
Targeted assistance for students in transition
Better technological support for students and advisers
(Grad Planner, Student Engagement Planner, Student
Portal)
Policy changes
• Honors students
• Last term of registration
• Repeating courses
• Curriculum changes to a major
Oversight
o Timing of change
o
Educating the University
Set expectations for
Advisers, faculty, staff and students
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Impacts of not graduating in 4 years
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Financial aid is restricted - 6 years for Pell
State programs are mostly tied to 4 years
Longer they stay the more they brower
 60% in 5 years versus 75% in 6 years (UMN)
 $24,000 versus $27,500 borrowed
Reduce lifetime earnings the longer they stay
The Big Picture
ECAS
Electronic Course Authorization System
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Create a new course
Update a current course
Approval workflow process
o Instructor
o College
o Liberal Education
o Graduate School
o Catalog Edit
o CCE
o PeopleSoft entry
ECAS
PCAS
Program and Curriculum Approval System
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Comprehensive database of all the
requirements needed to complete each degree
program
Approval system the route changes or new
programs to approvers
Used for the Graduation Planner
PCAS: Sample Plans
PCAS: Checkpoint Charts
PCAS: Checkpoint Charts
APLUS
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Gives advisers one location to view current,
detailed information about a student
Enable more timely communication with
students and faster resolution of issues
Ensure that pertinent information about a
student, including advising notes, follows the
student across the campus
APLUS
Graduation Planner
Giving students and advisers the information
they need to plan for timely graduation.
Bring together everything about:
Students
Programs and majors
Courses
Graduation Planner
Curriculum
Three buckets:
Liberal Education requirements 35 credits
Major requirements
Electives
Electives toward the degree
Excess Electives
**Double dipping of courses
Curriculum (catalog)
How many credits to earn a degree - 120?
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91.5% of undergraduate programs require
120 credits for degree completion
8.5% of undergraduate programs require
more
o range: 122 - 129 credits
o max 129 credits
2005-06 Average Total Credits at Time of Graduation
Actual credits
Degree Audit
Average degree progress after 3 years
Reporting
Focus
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4-year graduation rate
o New high school
o First-time full-time
Administrative barriers to degree completion
o deadlines, internal business processes, system
errors, etc.
Students who haven't by should have:
o applied to graduate; and/or
o graduated
Reporting
Data
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Graduation rate cohort data
o Grad rate cohort (year and student ID's)
SIS data
o college, major, etc.
Degree audit data
o degree progress percentage complete
Report
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MS excel format
Sent to collegiate contacts 3 times per year
Analysis
Results from Office of the Registrar data
analysis, reports, and communication with
collegiate units.
• OTR direct impact on 4-year grad rates
2006 - 0.39% increase
o 2007 - 1.10% increase
o 2008 - 0.67% increase
o
Analysis
Analysis
Notable findings:
• Artificially suppressed graduation rates
missed application deadlines
o student applied to graduate for the wrong term
o student was not sure whether or not they wanted to
graduate
Policy impacts
o Changes to backdating degree practices
o University Honors program practices
 impact of thesis completion requirement
Increase in collegiate engagement
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NAS Data Demand!
New demand for NAS data
number of transfers by college
average number of transfer credits by
college
status by year (total, active, complete,
discontinue, leave of absence)
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Analysis
Faster not more!
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2000 - 2007: 21.4% increase in 4-year graduation
rate
However...
o 4-year graduation rate increasing faster than 5and 6-year graduation rate
o relatively small increases in graduation rate post
6-years
o relatively small increases in total number of
degrees produced compared to total number of
undergraduate students.
A Complex System...
Results:
Next Steps
• Hit 60% for 4 year rate in 2013
• Analyze the 42% that didn't graduate in 4
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years
Research and increase 6 year rate
Investigate degree completion totals
Formalize curriculum committee
Increase transfer student graduation rates
Questions?
Frank Blalark – blala001@umn.edu
Sue Van Voorhis – vanvo002@umn.edu